Chair Chariots

My name is Marilyn Bassin, I am a physiotherapist, this is my story:

The night before my 10-hour surgery, to remove a tumour dangerously close to my brain I couldn’t sleep. What if something went wrong?

By morning I had made a promise: if all went well, I would spend my life helping heal the world. A week later I was discharged, I had lost hearing in one ear and much of my balance—and I had a promise to keep.

I founded Boikanyo, the Dion Herson Foundation, and began volunteering with children living in state hospitals, too ill to go home. I had found my life's calling: ensuring forgotten children were seen, valued, and included.

Then I met Meshack and Shadrack, the 7-year-old profoundly disabled twins living in a shack in Soweto. I discovered that in South Africa's rural communities, the incidence of cerebral palsy is five times the global average. Cerebral palsy children have no control over their bodies; they need a specialised wheelchair - a buggy. Buggies cost 4 times as much as a regular wheelchair and too few are issued in state hospitals. Once return...